All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. What’s the difference between work and play? Where does productivity end and unproductivity begin? Does purposeful play go against the very nature of playfulness?

Performing (un)Real Economies is a playful workshop exploring the use of improvisation games and Live Action Role-Play (LARP) as tools for collectively designing alternative worlds. Through LARPing we can safely fail and try out things we would avoid in real life, making them natural spaces for exploration of what kind of worlds are possible and/or preferable. 

Let’s blur the lines between real and (un)real economies, shifting our sight from the dominant capitalist market, to the unseen diverse practices of work and exchange. Drawing inspiration from the unpaid housework, alternative currencies, gift giving, civic hacking, co-gardening, and candy sharing, we will speculate on what (un)real economies could exist in the future (or a parallel universe). 

The workshop is aimed at creative ‘professionals’ interested in exploring new tools for their practice or anyone interested in questions of diverse economies and spending a day to play. Through peer-learning, laughing, discussion, make-believe and bad acting we will collectively question our own notions of values, labor, productivity - and economy. The workshop will leave you with a new sensibility to economies, and a taste of different improv exercises and how to create and play a LARP.

Take a break from reality and indulge in some (un)real fun.

For more info check our website http://un-real.fun

Monday, June 25

10 AM - 5 PM

antwork 

Free of Charge

Registration: www.ihjoz.com/events/3356

During Beirut Design Week, Marc Andrews and Christian Degen, two German designers, will explore the neighborhoods surrounding the Beit Beirut Museum along with local creatives. From a design perspective and methodology, the workshop will examine and investigate how one can contribute to the quality of life in a rapidly changing urban environment. 

Marc and Christian have conducted similar workshops in more than 25 cities worldwide, from China, Colombia, South Africa, Senegal, to Romania, Moldavia and many more.

Both designers live and work in Amsterdam. Together they are running a creative studio for visual communication, andrews:degen, where they are developing strategies and visual concepts for campaigns, identities, publications and online services. They love to share and apply their knowledge in the context of social design for the greater cause. 

Christian Degen (1978, Kleve, Germany) is co-founding partner of andrews:degen and works since 2008 in Amsterdam. He studied graphic design in Cologne, Utrecht and Barcelona. Besides he teaches communication and multimedia design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and provides lectures and workshops on social design at several international art schools and design festivals.

Marc Andrews (1978, Kleve, Germany)is also a co-founding partner of andrews:degen and is a social psychologist and designer. He lives since more then 20 years in the Netherlands. He bundled his interests and passion about visual communication and psychology in the book 'Hidden Persuasion' published by BIS Publishers. Further he coaches young designers in their final projects at the faculty of Multimedia Design in Amsterdam and organises Social Design Workshops around the globe.

4 Days Workshop

Starts Monday, June 25

Ends Thursday, June 28

10 AM - 3 PM

Beit Beirut and surrounding neighborhoods

Free of Charge

Registration: www.ihjoz.com/events/3364

The documentary Enough White Teacups, produced and directed by Michelle Bauer Carpenter, highlights the Danish non-profit INDEX: Design to Improve Life (INDEX) which is based on Scandinavian design culture and practice. Enough White Teacups showcases INDEX award nominees and winners and presents how design can be used to plan and build affordable housing, to prevent of blindness, to destroy landmines, to deliver vaccines and blood in remote areas, to clean up the oceans and to help prevent infant and mother mortality, among others. Enough White Teacups examines sustainable designs/inventions that embrace the principles of social, economic and ecological sustainability.

The aim of this panel is to initiate a series of conversations about the role of university-level design programs in addressing the needs of the cities. While higher education is one of the largest industries in Lebanon, institutional structures have sometimes made collaboration difficult. This panel will overcome these limitations by bringing together design program administrators to have a conversation about how undergraduate and graduate design programs in a variety of disciplines envision their relationship to the cities they inhabit. How might the design education community advocate for design as a whole in Beirut? What pedagogical practices are unique to the design disciplines? To what extent should design programs prepare students for a job market, and to what extent should they prepare students to engage with larger social issues? What is the role of the higher education in determining what Lebanese design is in the first place? How should design schools shape or intervene in the communities around them? These questions will serve as a launching point for a larger discussion about what design education can and should be doing in Beirut and its neighboring cities. 

Panelists:

Carla Aramouny

Melissa Plourde

Mariano Alessandro 

 

 

Practitioners are invited to critically reflect on methodologies, tools and processes chosen in relation to physical sites and their complexities. This panel is a prompt for designers and researchers to reflect on methods, politics, tools, abstraction, complexity in representation.

Speakers:

- Claudia Martinez Mansell, Balloon Mapping Bourj Al Shamali

- Ahmad Gharbieh (American University of Beirut), Refugees as City-Makers

- Sergej Schellen (Bus Map Project), Connecting the Map to the Street: Design & Civic Action

- Mustapha Jundi, Between land and sea

Discussant: Majd Al Shihabi

Language: English

The event consists on inviting people to design their own cosmetic products. After taking a short skin quiz, one can choose with us the appropriate ingredients & essential oils to customize his own facial serum or beard oil then he can handcraft, label & pack his own product.

Conceived as an art gallery, all the walls would compose the support of our architectural projects as well as many paintings reflecting our vision of the new cities.

The “open house” will be a reflection of our work in many fields: architecture, urban planning, interior design, landscape, product design and painting.

It will focus on the projection of a wide selection of projects in all stages of the design.

it will show the process we use in order to conceive each project.

Sketches, photos, 3d views and visual presentations will be exposed all over the studio.

Furthermore, a wide range of ink sketches on canvas will be exposed on all the walls reflecting our vision on the futuristic cities invading our world. “In motion” or “flying” machines would mainly compose the theme of the event.

Cocktail bar and music at our ground floor level.Artistic installation on the stairs leading all the way to the first floor then to our presentation room where we will be streaming an inspirational movie.

During the official opening, The Semicolon Story invites their host designers to pay homage to the craftsmanship behind their products. The store is transformed to a workshop, where the designers explore raw material, tools, forms and tell stories of the makers.

Living Roofs by nabil gholam architects

Mapping of Beirut roofscapes, its past functions and its future possibilities. Beirut roofscapes are the last virgin urban terrain, what can be their transformative role in the city? nabil gholam architects will share their vision on the role of the last communal spaces left in a dense urban jungle.

Pass by to check the outcomes of the workshop during Badaro Day.

A workshop where participants design and build a public living room (furniture and shading structure) under the guidance of professional designers who will teach them to practice woodwork and metalwork skills while making a public space come to life.// two workshops, with two tutors: Rawad Rizk for woodwork and Naja Rechmani for metal work. The design and manufacturing will take place from the 23rd till the 25th.